Novgorod

We stopped for a night & a day in Novgorod, which is between St P'burg and Moskva. We arrived just after dark, and just went for the first hotel we found. Which meant we had to take a suite with a spa bath, but it cost about as much as a hostel in St P'burg (and less than Moscow), so we probably deserved it or something. Joanna still isn't entirely in tune with the weiners and salad for brekkie though.

This will obviously be your immediate expectation of what inner European Russia looks like:


Yes that is a beach. A river beach. Suddenly it became clear what we'd been reading about Novgorod being an important trading town for the Vikings - they could get their boats up this far. Novgorod is one of a few Russian cities that has claim to being the First Russian Capital. Apparently the Vikings, working on trade with the Middle East (I'm not making this up), were the ones to organise the Slavic locals into civilisations, countries etc. So Novgorod was set up as a trading port a bit over 1200 years ago, and was the capital of the first Russian state (of which there were to be quite a few) 1100-odd years ago.
Here's the Millennium of Russia monument they put up to celebrate it:


They built a great church in 1050, St Sophia's, where we got to learn a bit about Russian Orthodoxy as we tuned into a guided tour:


It was quite interesting. Although 2 hour services with no seats, or even any hymns sounds quite hard work. Also a bit weird watching all the women covering their heads.

Here's a different view of the Novgorod Kremlin (or "fortress" as we non-poetic anglo-saxons would call it):


And yes, we know you can get in trouble for taking pictures of stranger's kids, but we had to show you what was cool in town: autumn leaves. All the girls were collecting them, and some really cool cats knew how to turn them into a hat:


Final historical note for the history geeks: Ivan the Terrible is not popular here. He razed the town with his "storm-troopers" (not just in Star Wars apparently), stopping it being a major trading town forever more. Novgorod had survived the Mongols coming through Russia, as they were put off sacking it due to it being a boggy day when they arrived; this had left it as by far the prettiest Russian city before Ivan's men went to work on it. Oh well, a man can go a bit doolally after his wife dies I s'pose...